BigHornRam
Well-known member
Looks like the NC may have overplayed their hand on this one. Time for Sportsmen's Groups to step up and help fund this 'access".
Conservation groups saw ‘one shot' for deal with Plum Creek
By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian
Last summer, when conservationists pitched a plan to buy 310,000 acres of Montana timberland for $500 million, the public offered some advice - “Don't get snookered.”
It was, after all, taxpayer money that would fund at least half of the deal.
“So we were very careful,” said Jamie Williams. “This didn't happen overnight.”
For decades, Williams and his colleagues at The Nature Conservancy had been slowly buying up industrial timberland, parcel by parcel, filling in the forested checkerboard of public-private ownership.
Much of the land was owned by Plum Creek Timber Co., which was increasingly selling off acres for real estate development.
That alarmed TNC, which conserves land for critters, and it also caught the attention of the Trust for Public Lands, which conserves access for people.
“We were both going after the checkerboard,” said TPL's Eric Love, “but we were moving too slowly.”
“We'd been working in these communities, some of them for 30 years,” Williams said, “and what we were hearing loud and clear is that while the collaborative work was great, there were big concerns about large blocks of timberlands that could come onto the market all at once.”
Plum Creek owned more than a million acres in Montana - Love called it a “ticking time bomb” - and if a sizable chunk went to real estate, “it could undermine much of what had been done.”
Real estate prices were skyrocketing, and Forest Service estimates suggested some 44 million acres of working forest could be out of work by 2030, growing trophy homes instead of timber.
“This,” Love said, “was our last chance.”
But they needed to buy wholesale, in a “super-size” project.
By fall 2007, Love and Williams had hit the books. They had decades of community input from across western Montana, and so knew which high-priority acres to target. They also had a land-purchase wish list crafted by the Forest Service, and critical habitat maps drawn by state wildlife officials, and conservation goals drafted by Montana land managers.
“This wasn't a new idea,” Love said. “It was part of a larger conversation that had been going on for years.”
The purchase map was no surprise. The Swan. Fish Creek. Lolo. Potomac.
Trouble was, those acres weren't for sale.
“They said they'd think about it,” Love said. “They didn't really know if we were for real.”
And to be honest, Love and Williams didn't know if they were for real, either.
A deal this size, they knew, would require not just TNC and TPL, but also the local communities, the state, the feds. They had run the numbers, knew the value, and figured they could raise maybe 20 percent from private sources.
As to the other
80 percent, “honestly,” Love said, “at the time, we didn't know.”
What Love needed was something “magical,” something big enough to create its own gravity, drawing money into its orbit.
That something emerged in spring 2008, when Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., crafted legislation that would make federal money available for just this sort of conservation project.
The senator, the company and the conservationists went public in June with the Montana Legacy Project, the largest conservation land deal in U.S. history.
Half the money -
$250 million - would come from the Baucus bill, and the lands bought with that public investment would go straight into Forest Service ownership.
TNC and TPL were on the hook for the other half, although they hoped - and still hope - for some investment by the state.
A round of 60 or so public meetings helped to settle which lands to buy with which pot, and the first phase - 111,000 acres purchased with $150 million in private funds - closed in December 2008. The money was loaned against TNC and TPL assets, and the groups now hope to re-sell the acres, possibly to the state, among others.
“We don't want to be the end-holder of those lands,” Love said.
Phase II, which involved the federal money, closed last month - $250 million for 111,000 prime acres in the Lolo and Blackfoot valleys, but mostly in the Seeley-Swan. That leaves 90,000 acres in Phase III, to be purchased next year with private funds.
Critics, however, remain skeptical, and even worried.
Worried that TNC and TPL might be forced to become real estate brokers if the money pinches too tightly. Worried this deal, should it fail, risks too much and might torpedo future conservation purchases. Worried a taxpayer bailout could be needed if the groups can't re-sell the parcels.
“We took a risk in Montana,” Love admitted, “but this was the one shot. This was the right time, with the right ingredients. We had to try.”
As to that fear of snookering, appraisal documents show the $250 million in taxpayer money bought generally premium land at about $2,250 per acre, well below the market value of local real estate.
Of course, it's still far more than the acres were worth from a timber perspective, but as Williams says, “this wasn't timberland anymore.”
“This was never a timber investment,” Love said, “It's a conservation investment.” It connects wildlife corridors, he said, and insulates taxpayers from development costs and maintains access and provides timber jobs, too.
“It's a complicated deal,” Love said, “but I'm a true believer. This was our last chance, so we took it.”
Reporter Michael Jamison can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at [email protected].
Conservation groups saw ‘one shot' for deal with Plum Creek
By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian
Last summer, when conservationists pitched a plan to buy 310,000 acres of Montana timberland for $500 million, the public offered some advice - “Don't get snookered.”
It was, after all, taxpayer money that would fund at least half of the deal.
“So we were very careful,” said Jamie Williams. “This didn't happen overnight.”
For decades, Williams and his colleagues at The Nature Conservancy had been slowly buying up industrial timberland, parcel by parcel, filling in the forested checkerboard of public-private ownership.
Much of the land was owned by Plum Creek Timber Co., which was increasingly selling off acres for real estate development.
That alarmed TNC, which conserves land for critters, and it also caught the attention of the Trust for Public Lands, which conserves access for people.
“We were both going after the checkerboard,” said TPL's Eric Love, “but we were moving too slowly.”
“We'd been working in these communities, some of them for 30 years,” Williams said, “and what we were hearing loud and clear is that while the collaborative work was great, there were big concerns about large blocks of timberlands that could come onto the market all at once.”
Plum Creek owned more than a million acres in Montana - Love called it a “ticking time bomb” - and if a sizable chunk went to real estate, “it could undermine much of what had been done.”
Real estate prices were skyrocketing, and Forest Service estimates suggested some 44 million acres of working forest could be out of work by 2030, growing trophy homes instead of timber.
“This,” Love said, “was our last chance.”
But they needed to buy wholesale, in a “super-size” project.
By fall 2007, Love and Williams had hit the books. They had decades of community input from across western Montana, and so knew which high-priority acres to target. They also had a land-purchase wish list crafted by the Forest Service, and critical habitat maps drawn by state wildlife officials, and conservation goals drafted by Montana land managers.
“This wasn't a new idea,” Love said. “It was part of a larger conversation that had been going on for years.”
The purchase map was no surprise. The Swan. Fish Creek. Lolo. Potomac.
Trouble was, those acres weren't for sale.
“They said they'd think about it,” Love said. “They didn't really know if we were for real.”
And to be honest, Love and Williams didn't know if they were for real, either.
A deal this size, they knew, would require not just TNC and TPL, but also the local communities, the state, the feds. They had run the numbers, knew the value, and figured they could raise maybe 20 percent from private sources.
As to the other
80 percent, “honestly,” Love said, “at the time, we didn't know.”
What Love needed was something “magical,” something big enough to create its own gravity, drawing money into its orbit.
That something emerged in spring 2008, when Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., crafted legislation that would make federal money available for just this sort of conservation project.
The senator, the company and the conservationists went public in June with the Montana Legacy Project, the largest conservation land deal in U.S. history.
Half the money -
$250 million - would come from the Baucus bill, and the lands bought with that public investment would go straight into Forest Service ownership.
TNC and TPL were on the hook for the other half, although they hoped - and still hope - for some investment by the state.
A round of 60 or so public meetings helped to settle which lands to buy with which pot, and the first phase - 111,000 acres purchased with $150 million in private funds - closed in December 2008. The money was loaned against TNC and TPL assets, and the groups now hope to re-sell the acres, possibly to the state, among others.
“We don't want to be the end-holder of those lands,” Love said.
Phase II, which involved the federal money, closed last month - $250 million for 111,000 prime acres in the Lolo and Blackfoot valleys, but mostly in the Seeley-Swan. That leaves 90,000 acres in Phase III, to be purchased next year with private funds.
Critics, however, remain skeptical, and even worried.
Worried that TNC and TPL might be forced to become real estate brokers if the money pinches too tightly. Worried this deal, should it fail, risks too much and might torpedo future conservation purchases. Worried a taxpayer bailout could be needed if the groups can't re-sell the parcels.
“We took a risk in Montana,” Love admitted, “but this was the one shot. This was the right time, with the right ingredients. We had to try.”
As to that fear of snookering, appraisal documents show the $250 million in taxpayer money bought generally premium land at about $2,250 per acre, well below the market value of local real estate.
Of course, it's still far more than the acres were worth from a timber perspective, but as Williams says, “this wasn't timberland anymore.”
“This was never a timber investment,” Love said, “It's a conservation investment.” It connects wildlife corridors, he said, and insulates taxpayers from development costs and maintains access and provides timber jobs, too.
“It's a complicated deal,” Love said, “but I'm a true believer. This was our last chance, so we took it.”
Reporter Michael Jamison can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at [email protected].
